And that’s a wrap! August is officially over and we are now in SEPTEMBER! September is a pretty exciting month for me so I can’t wait to talk about it in my TBR, but first we need to wrap August up with a pretty bow and send it on its way. This was an excellent reading month in terms of how many books I read (and how many high ratings I gave), even if I didn’t end up sticking to my TBR perfectly. Shall we take a look?

1. TBR Check In
2. Overview from the Storygraph
3. Books Read
4. Books Progressed or DNF’d
5. Books Acquired
6. Language Studies
7. On the Blog
8. Around the Blogosphere
9. Question Time

Disclaimer: Clicking on any of the book covers will take you to their Storygraph page, whilst clicking on the titles will take you to their Bookshop.org UK page (if the book is available there).

The Bookshop Uk links are affiliate links, so I do earn a little bit of comission if you buy through them – this doesn’t affect the price you pay. Mostly, I just want to encourage everyone to stay away from Amazon and use either your library, independent bookshop (or at the very least a dedicated bookshop like Waterstones or Barnes and Noble in the US). Let’s keep our bookshops and libraries in business!

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TBR Check In

I did read quite a few of my TBR books and make progress in a couple of others, but I also didn’t make any progress in the two books I had marked for that (including my buddy read), and there was one other book that I didn’t start at all as well.

Italics = I read some of this book this month but didn’t finish it.

• 이상한 나라의 스물셋 [The Strange Land of 23] (stories 3 and 4)
• The Master and Margarita (30%)
• The Legend of Lady Byeoksa: Die Perlen des Todes [The Pearls of Death]
• An Apology for Idlers
• The Lantern of Lost Memories
• Ancillary Sword
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate
• Shards of Earth
• The Last Gifts of the Universe
• 검을 든 꽃 1 [The Flower Holding a Sword 1]
• 魔幻時刻 [Instances of Magic]
• Women Who Fly

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Overview from the Storygraph

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Books Read

• The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August ⭐⭐⭐ | Review
• Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐
• Magic Claims by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐
• Arcana Academy by Elise Kova ⭐⭐.5 | Review

• To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Review
• The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi ⭐⭐⭐.5
• And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie ⭐⭐⭐⭐

• Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Lights, Planets, People by Molly Naylor and Lizzy Stewart ⭐⭐⭐.5
• Blossomise by Simon Armitage ⭐⭐⭐
• The Pink Book by Kaye Blegvad ⭐⭐⭐

Books Progressed or DNF’d

I definitely didn’t make as much progress on as many books as I had hoped – see the complete lack of both Korean short stories and The Master and Margarita – but I did make some progress in a couple of books. This is definitely something I need to focus more on in September though.

• An Apology for Idlers by Robert Louis Stevenson – 1 essay
• 검을 든 꽃 1 [Flower Holding a Sword 1] by 은소로 [Eun Soro] – 50 pages (part 1)
• The Legend of Lady Byeoksa: Die Perlen des Todes [The Pearls of Death] by Esther Park – 12 pages (-> 20%)
• 魔幻時刻 [Magical Moments] by Ban Jisoo – 20 pages (4ish poems/essays)

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Books Acquired

I bought 2 ebooks and 3 physical books this month – not too shabby, if I do say so myself. I’m not on a book ban, but I am trying to severely limit my book buying (of English-language books at least).

I’m also trying to read the English books I get in faster; since I’ve read 3/5 books I acquired this month (and the two I didn’t read I bought in the last week of the month), I’d say I’m not doing to bad on that front either.

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Language Studies

Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this one this month haha. My language studies completely fell to the wayside this month. I did take one Chinese class and one Korean class (both pretty much just conversation) and work on a couple chapters of a German grammar textbook, but nothing else. Another one to improve for September!

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On the Blog

I posted a lot (by my standards) on the blog this month!

I was pretty good about posting on this blog this month, but because I was neglecting my studying, I also negelcted my studygram – another thing for me to improve in September (which should hopefully be easier because I’m moving and will a) have a desk and b) be starting my master’s).

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Around the Blogosphere

Some of my favourite blog posts from the month!

• 2026 Books on My Radar (Rebecca @Powder & Page) – This inspired me to start my 2026 reading spreadsheet early so I can start noting down releases!
• Books to read to finish my reading challenges (Sophie @Sophie Counts Clouds) – I really love Sophie’s in-between passive and active approach to challenges, keeping them fun without pressure!
• Magical Readathon Autumn Equinox TBR (Annemieke @A Dance With Books) – The character Annemieke has created is so cute, I wish had even an ounce of the artistic skills 😭
• Ten(ish) artists to follow on Instagram (Sophie @Beware the the Reader) – This was Sophie’s non-bookish Top Ten Tuesday and I really loved how she decided to spotlight artists and creators (also, pretty art!).
• Nope Book Tag (Zezee @Zezee With Books) – This is a fun tag (not one to get book recs from though). It can be fun to talk about what we don’t like in books as well as what we do like!

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Question Time

What was your favourite book of the month?

If you did a wrap up post of your feel free to link it in the comments and I’ll check it out!

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Keira x